Team Vitality eliminated from IEM Sydney 2023

The excitement of the first tournament in the CS2 era, IEM Sydney 2023, continues, and all the teams are doing their best to start writing a page in the history book of Valve’s new shooter.

However, it’s not all good news for some of these teams, specifically Team Vitality. The Paris Major champions, IEM Rio and Gamers8, performed terribly in the tournament and failed to win a single match. As a result, the #1 ranked Counter-Strike World Rankings are eliminated from IEM Sydney 2023.

There is no doubt that this is a disappointing run for this team that is full of extraordinary players. However, we must obligatorily mention that Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut’s terrible performance in the tournament with the AWP raises many doubts regarding this role in the new game.

Let’s look at how Team Vitality’s disappointing run at IEM Sydney 2023 went.

Team Vitality leaves Australia without winning a single match

It is no secret that Team Vitality came to this tournament with the tag of favorites because, besides being #1 in the Ranking, the team has shown great play throughout the season. However, the arrival of the new game has taken its toll on their performance, and right now, they will have to watch the remaining matches from home while at the same time preparing for the next tournament.

With their loss to @FaZeClan, the last-ever CS:GO Major winners @TeamVitality are eliminated from the first tournament in CS2 in last place at #IEM Sydney.

A tough pill to swallow for sure, but there’s no shortage of opportunities to come in the future of CS2. pic.twitter.com/jxedvSj3Zs

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) October 16, 2023

In the first Group Stage match, Team Vitality collided head-on against a truck that is giving a pleasant surprise in Australia, BetBoom Team. Vitality came close to winning, as they started that match in great form. However, the aggressiveness of the Russian squad came through to take the victory.

With this defeat, Team Vitality fell to the Lower Bracket and faced FaZe Clan to fight for permanence in the tournament.

FaZe Clan apply a reverse sweep against Team Vitality

Team Vitality started this series with a close victory on the first map, Overpass, with a score of 16-14. This, without a doubt, seemed to give them the desired boost to face the rest of the matches of this BO3.

However, the team started having some problems, specifically with ZywOo’s AWPer, who was ineffective in the series. In the second map, Inferno, FaZe Clan started their comeback with an excellent 13-10 victory. In addition, we must highlight that Håvard “rain” Nygaard was at his best to lead FaZe to victory.

Finally, Nuke was the stage that was in charge of defining the winner of this series. Team Vitality started this map on the right foot and confidently after winning 8 of the first 9 rounds. However, this only made the FaZe Clan guys wake up and, once again led by rain and Robin “ropz” Kool, they managed to turn the score around to take the victory by 13-9 and stay alive in the tournament.

Fell in overtime on Overpass.
Barely pushed Inferno over the finish line.
Started Nuke down 1:8 before stringing 11 back-to-back together.@FaZeClan STAY ALIVE over @TeamVitality in the #IEM Sydney opening matches!

Next they take on @natusvincere tomorrow in the lower bracket🥵 pic.twitter.com/NhsX4DDDpGb

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) October 16, 2023

Header: ESL